Famous Thinkers

Famous Thinkers Paper

Select and read the articles about two famous thinkers in the Week Four Electronic Reserve Readings. Find additional articles in the University Library or on the Internet.

Write a 1,050- to 1,400-word paper. Include the following:

Information about the thinkers’ contributions to society

Each thinkers’ personal/ social/ political environments and how you think these factors contributed to their creativity

The problems or issues that their ideas sought to solve

A description of the solutions, and how their ideas were implemented

The creative process of each thinker and a comparison of the two creative processes

A critique of their ideas and what could they have done differently

William H. Gates (1955- ) may be the greatest philanthropist of our time, if the sheer sum of wealth donated to philanthropic causes is the measure. By 2002, Gates had given sixty percent of his wealth to charity and contends that, over his lifetime, the total will be ninety-five percent. He is viewed as the twenty-first century's Rockefeller or Carnegie. He earned his wealth as co-founder (with friend Paul Allen) and chief executive officer of Microsoft (a major software company and one of the largest corporations in the world). Regardless of his monetary value and the profound impact he has had on the technology industry and philanthropic sector, Gates sees himself as a normal person. He drives an affordable mid-size car and goes to work everyday.

To date, Bill Gates has given $24 billion to the private foundation he began with his wife, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (Microsoft 2003). The main focus of the Gates' foundation and their public awareness work includes global health and population control programs, increased library technology, minority scholarships, and education reform (Crowley 2000). With his almost urgent attention given, specifically, to the issues of global health and library technology, Bill Gates has made a greater impact...